Then came a series of misfortunes, beginning with a fight one night in which Mr. Fascher, still apparently bloody strong and quick, broke a customer's jaw. He served two years of a three-year sentence, and when he got out, he was banned from the Star Club. It was then that Mr. Fascher, who clearly had a knack for meeting people who could help in hours of dire need, was hired by the USO to manage entertainment tours in Vietnam.

MORE recently came the worst imaginable tragedy. Mr. Fascher lost two of his three children — one in an accident, another to a congenital heart defect — an experience that threw him into a depression that lasted four years, and from which he has only recently emerged.

These days he spends a good deal of time promoting his book, but he is more than just a man with a lot of memories of rock stars.

He is not only about to marry a woman he met a few years ago. He is also working with two Danish entrepreneurs who have a plan to reopen the Star Club as a music club, museum and retail store.

"At my age, to have the Star Club again in the place where it started — that's a dream," Mr. Fascher said.

"It's a different time now, and it takes more money" to attract the bigger acts, he said. "But I think some will come for fun, and some will come because that's where the Beatles played."